Why is this misunderstanding of Islam so widespread? Why does it claim tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Muslims who have joined jihad groups all around the world? Why is it preached in all too many mosques and subscribed to by Muslim clerics — men who have dedicated their lives to understanding Islam properly?
Why is the supposedly peaceful and benign Islam that Qamar Abbas presumably taught to Haris Qamar not able to withstand challenge from the shadowy computer figures who taught Haris a “twisted view of Islam”? Who are these people on the computer, and why are they so intent on propagating this twisted view of Islam? What are mosques and Islamic schools in the U.S. doing to try to counter the appeal of this twisted view of Islam?
Above all, why do U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials complacently accept this nonsense from people such as Qamar Abbas, instead of investigating his possible role, and that of the local mosque, in the evolution of the mindset of Haris Qamar?
“VA Father says son doesn’t understand Islam,” Associated Press, July 9, 2016 (thanks to Lookmann):
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The father of a Virginia man charged in a government sting with attempting to support the Islamic State says his son doesn’t understand Islam.
Twenty-five-year-old Haris Qamar of Burke was arrested Friday. Prosecutors say Qamar helped a man who turned out to be an FBI informant film landmarks in the Washington, DC, area for what Qamar believed would be a video encouraging lone-wolf terrorist attacks….
Qamar’s father, Qamar Abbas, said in an interview that he worried over the years as his son grew a long beard and became inattentive to his studies. He said his son spent long hours on the computer that may have led him to a twisted view of Islam.